I invite you to turn with me this morning to Psalm 73. Psalm 73. We read that in connection with our consideration of the first beatitude in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. As many of you recall, in our general introduction, we said that the Sermon on the Mount is a sermon for believers that Christ gave. Primarily surrounded by believers. In which Jesus talks about, first of all, in the Beatitudes, kingdom character, we might say. And then after that, kingdom conduct that flows from that kingdom character. And then with regard to that kingdom character, last week we said that kingdom character, that Jesus is not giving us different classes of Christians in the Beatitudes. But that every Christian has this character. That every Christian, every believer has every one of these characteristics. Not perfectly, not all made visible and expressed as they ought to be at all times, but indeed is a description of the character of the believer. So this morning we consider Matthew 5, verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Psalm 73. Hear now the Word of God. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man. They are not plagued by human ills. Therefore, pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity. The evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff and speak with malice. In their arrogance, they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance, they say, how can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge? This is what the wicked are like. Always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure. In vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued. I have been punished every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their final destiny. Surely you placed them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. As a dream, when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish. You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge. I will tell of all your deeds. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you look into the mirror, what do you see? I mean, more than just seeing your physical features, which sometimes deceive us, but as you see your own face, you see something of yourself that nobody else can see, even as you look into the mirror. As you look into that mirror, you see a physical reflection really of your whole self, of your whole being, of the issues of life that you are facing, your goals, your fears, your struggles, your joys. What do you see? And as you look into the mirror, does what you see match with what you see as you look into the mirror of the Word of God? You see, that mirror, the mirror of the Word of God, that mirror does not lie. That mirror goes right to the heart of the matter. Satan would deceive us. He would have us to have a view of ourselves that contradicts, that is a different portrait than God's truth about you and me. But in the first beatitude, in this first kingdom character, as Jesus lays it before us, which is foundational for all the other characteristics that He will mention. You see, you cannot be a Christian. It's impossible to be a true believer apart from this, being poor in spirit. In this first beatitude, Jesus teaches that the kingdom citizen is to see and understand the truth of himself. He teaches that as with this kingdom character of being poor in spirit, Jesus teaches of the Christian's self-portrait. The Christian's self-portrait. And that self-portrait includes two things we'll talk about. First of all, an unusual emptiness on the one hand. But on the other hand, an unimaginable fullness. An emptiness and a fullness. First of all, it's unusual emptiness. Again, all the other kingdom characteristics naturally flow from this first one, which we might say is a sort of a cleansing characteristic as it empties us of our natural self before God. You see, when you and I look into the mirror, you might not like the truth that you see. There may be pimples, there may be big ears. When you get older, there may be wrinkles or graying hair or even a receding hairline. And you can try to tell yourself that they're not really there. But it doesn't make it any less true because the mirror does not lie. It tells the truth. The mirror of the Word of God tells the truth about you and me. And before God, we need to be emptied of the truth of ourselves. And we can understand this, I believe, if we first have a true understanding of poor, as Jesus is talking about it. Indeed, it's an appropriate analogy. The word for poor here, you see, is not simply talking about one who has a little bit less than the next guy. It's not talking about one who is just getting by. It's right at the national poverty level that the government sets. But the word for poor here is talking about one who is poor as poor can be. It's talking about a beggar, one with no job, no source of income or provision, talking about one who is completely destitute and deprived of every means of self-support, one who depends completely on others for his survival. We think of Lazarus and the story of the rich man and Lazarus. He ate the crumbs from the rich man's table. He depended on those crumbs. Yet Jesus is not talking here about physically poor. He's not talking about poverty-stricken in the material sense. Indeed, the Bible teaches that God has a special care for the widow and for the fatherless and as well for the materially poor. It's true that those who are poor, as this word describes, are often much more conscious of their need and their dependence and therefore probably more quick to acknowledge it and to desire and seek help and relief. Luke, in his Gospel account of the Beatitudes, says, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. You see, Luke there seems to suggest that Jesus is speaking only about the physically and materially poor. And no doubt some are included in that. We think about the context of Christ's sermon. It was His ministry. He was preaching and teaching, but also feeding, healing, casting out demons. But even Luke seems to be talking about more than simply the materially poor. You see, the Bible never anywhere commends poverty. It never teaches that being poor like this is a good thing. Jesus is not talking about the materially poor across the board and saying, well, theirs is the kingdom of heaven because we know that the poor man by nature is no different than the rich man. The poor man by nature is no nearer to the kingdom of heaven than the rich man. And poor is used in another way in Scripture. In the Old Testament, poor often points to being weak and helpless because of situations that it points to being dispossessed, as it were, pushed out of one's home, out of one's country, lacking power to defend or save oneself. We see that with King David. In Psalm 34, verse 6, David speaks of himself and he says, This poor man called, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. This poor man. And David says something similar in Psalm 40, verse 17 about himself. David, boys and girls, was not materially poor. Most likely, he was the wealthiest man alive at that time, if not at least one of the most wealthy. But he was suffering poverty of circumstance, we might say. He was going through hardships of life. He knew that his dependence was not upon himself, but it was only upon God. You see, the needy beggar, one who is dependent on others, is an appropriate analogy for one who is poor in the heart realm. One who is poor in spirit. One who is poor in the inward man. See, Jesus is talking here about one's attitude about himself or herself, but not then displaying that attitude. For example, having a false outward piety or humility, belittling oneself in order to gain the sympathy of others. Nor is He talking about some sort of a depression, a spiritual depression, and walking around saying, nobody loves me, everybody hates me. That's not what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about one's attitude about himself or herself. How the kingdom citizen sees himself. Not in relationship to the world. Not in relationship to men, people. But how the kingdom citizen sees himself or herself in relationship to God. And that, of course, then affects how one sees this world and one's relationship with the world. Jesus is saying, He is teaching here, that the poor in spirit have a true self-estimate. A true self-understanding. A proper estimate of oneself that comes from that mirror of the truth of the Word of God. And that true self-estimate, that true self-understanding is contrasted with the world. The world of arrogance demonstrated by the wicked that the psalmist speaks of in Psalm 73. The world can only conceive of rich and poor in the material sense. And therefore, indeed, blessed are the rich. Of course. Rich is achieved by me, of course. Through my high self-esteem, through my self-reliance, through my own self-confidence to the world, success is measured by what you can accomplish. So sell yourself, fill your resume, not just with your educational experience and with your work experience, but fill your resume, we are being taught, with a certain amount of arrogance. Make yourself look good, even if you know you're trying to make yourself look a little better than you know you are. And the world's slogans are be all that you can be, never give up. You can have whatever you set, or you can do whatever you set your mind to do. Don't let anyone tell you you can't. The world's way is to be full of oneself. To lay claim to heaven, as the psalmist says, and to earth. To be full of oneself, because it's all about you. It's all about what you do. And if the world happens to think about the afterlife, well, it's kind of the same attitude. Well, I did my best here, so I'm going to be okay there. The world sees no accountability before God, just like, again, the wicked of Psalm 73. But the Christian's self-portrait, beloved, has an unusual emptiness of being poor in spirit, which is characteristic of new life in Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to be poor in spirit? What is the Christian's attitude about himself or herself as we come face to face with God? We have a very clear and vivid illustration of that through Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, when he sees the Lord high and lifted up and he hears the seraphs sing, holy, holy, holy, his response is, woe to me. I cried, I am ruined. I'm in trouble. I'm devastated for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. He saw the truth of himself even as he gazed upon the truth of God that he could not stand in God's holy presence. You see, when the Holy Spirit removes our spiritual blinders and brings us face to face with the truth of God, we see the truth of Him. That He is holy and pure and righteous and strong and powerful and majestic and just. That He is a just God. That sin cannot and will not stand in His presence. Because He is a sovereign God over all. And we also see the truth of ourself. Our sin and helplessness and hopelessness. That we are ruined before Him. Worthless. Spiritually bankrupt. It's hard to imagine in this world where we are so busy and we are filled with activities and successes and failures, it's hard to imagine though that with all these things going on around us, that in the sight of God, we are nothing. And life is nothing. without Him. The believer is brought to recognize that my sin made me an enemy of God. Nothing else but my sin made me an enemy of God with no hope of reconciliation from anything that I can do. To recognize that the believer is nothing and has nothing in himself before God. And therefore, the believer is brought to recognize that this life, whether it is filled with successes or failures according to the world's estimation, it is meaningless. It is absolute nothingness apart from God. To recognize like the psalmist when he was brought into the sanctuary of God. And to lay his eyes upon the altar of God and be reminded that God is angry with sin and that we need another. He saw that sinful man is doomed forever. Because of himself. Like the beggar that is conscious of his need and dependence. The believer is brought to see that he depends on God completely to be rescued. Nothing in my hands I bring. The child of God does not come with clenched fists filled with something to present to God. With open hands. Seeking, trusting for the Lord to fill. You see, this true estimate of the believer is a condition of humility. Again, like that beggar who is totally deprived of any means of self-support, completely dependent on others for support, that describes the Christian's self-portrait emptied of himself. We need to understand, too, though, that Jesus is not condemning here, for example, having a certain confidence in the work for which you and I have been prepared to do. He's not saying that we are to not go about doing that confidently. He's not condemning God-given talents or abilities, whether it be in academics or music or athletics, and therefore that we're not to use those talents confidently. He's not condemning God-given personalities of leadership and organization. He's not calling us to be a doormat, if you will, walking around with our head hanging low, but instead recognizing that all of these things are dependent on God, who is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He's not talking about suppressing the gifts that God has given that might cause us to stand out a bit from others. But all these things depend, don't they, upon one's attitude of himself in the sight of God. The believer's true estimate is a conviction of faith. It has been said that being poor in spirit is the negative side of faith. And I think we can understand that. True faith kind of has two sides. True faith in Jesus Christ means on the one side to understand, to know the truth of myself, to know how great my sin and misery are. We need to know that before we will see Jesus as our only hope. You cannot look at God in true faith without feeling absolute poverty and emptiness. Arrogance blinds one. As the Bible says, the fool says in his heart there is no God. The Christian self-portrait includes an unusual emptiness. The emptiness of knowing that I have nothing to offer to God, I have nothing of value, I have nothing for which He should overlook my sin, nothing by which to pay for it. that emptiness of forsaking myself completely and falling at the mercy seat of God. Even the psalmist did that. I was like a brute beast, he said. I was ignorant. He saw the truth of himself, but emptied of himself. He finds it all in God, trusting in the blood and righteousness and the finished work of Jesus Christ, which points in the second place to the other side, the unimaginable fullness of the Christian's self-portrait. The believer, the one who is poor in spirit, is not, as we have said, down and out, as it were. Emptied of himself, to be sure, but there is that fullness, that unimaginable fullness. He is filled with joy because of the knowledge of faith, the positive side of faith, which is of the sufficiency of Christ. The fullness of Christ who humbled Himself all the way to death on the cross who became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Beloved, He is the believer's unimaginable fullness. Even as Paul beautifully says in Galatians 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ lives in me. He is the believer's unimaginable fullness so that by faith I have the confidence of the acceptance of God that I am accepted by God. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All with that beggar, the one who is completely dependent on no one else, it's interesting because you think of that beggar and it seems as if there's no future, no fortune for that one at all. And that's how it is for you and I, emptied of ourselves. If we stop there, no future, no fortune. But that unimaginable fullness is the kingdom of heaven, the adoption of God. As Paul says in Romans 8, verse 16, the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. He has taken us to be His very own. And we are saved. That's a small word, saved. We throw it around so easy, so flippantly. But it may be true, at least for many of us, that unless you have faced a situation in which you were facing death, and needed to be saved, whether drowning or in a burning home or in a terrible car accident or facing death due to a deadly disease. It may be hard for us to contemplate, to understand, saved. But we must understand that we were dead. We were completely nothing. We had absolutely nothing. but in Christ we are saved from all of that. And Paul describes the beauty of it when he says that our citizenship is in heaven. We enjoy the kingdom of God's grace here today and also the kingdom of His glory in the hereafter. Some of you know that two of the most precious verses of Scripture to me come from Psalm 73, verses 23 and 24. after the psalmist laments all these things about the wicked, after he is brought to his senses, he says, yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. Grace for today. And afterward, you will take me to glory. Glory forever. You, you, you. What a beautiful description of being empty of oneself and enjoying the fullness of God and having contentment and confidence in Him. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven, including the riches of that kingdom, which includes all things work together for the good of those who love Him, Romans 8.28, which includes the shepherd's tender and complete and comprehensive care, Psalm 23, which includes having a home, being prepared even at this moment for you and me by the Savior, John chapter 14. Which includes eternal security. Eternal security, as Paul says, more than conquerors. Nothing shall separate us. Which includes that heavenly inheritance which will not perish, spoil, or fade. It cannot be stolen, Peter says. It includes, as the psalmist says, being drawn ever nearer to God, who is our refuge. It includes the unimaginable fullness of overpowering joy. God gives us a joy that is overpowering. So often we are not truly grateful for something until it is taken away. This joy, this overpowering joy, is over the sorrow of ourself. as we see ourselves face to face with God, we cannot help again but to be filled with sorrow because of sin. If you're not filled with sorrow because of sin, you have not truly seen God by faith. Yet when we understand what we have in Jesus Christ, when we understand what has been taken away, He brings to us an unimaginable joy. Paul calls it an inexpressible joy. Boys and girls, think of the most wonderful present you have ever received that you can remember. How excited that present made you feel. How you couldn't wait to show and tell your friends. That is the joy of Christianity. Over and over again. A thousand times, thousand times, ten thousands fold. The earthly possessions that gave us excitement and joy, They break. They get lost. We outgrow them. But the gift of salvation is good for all ages. One size fits all, as it were. It will never be lost. It will never be stolen. It will never become obsolete or ineffective. And that overpowering joy, beloved, gives us humble confidence that with Jesus Christ living in me, I don't need to fear the world. I don't need to envy the world. I don't need to worry about the grass that seems greener on the other side of the fence. But with Jesus Christ living in me, instead to courageously, confidently, contentedly live for the King of the Kingdom every day. Being confident in Him throughout my calling in life. Rejoicing and encouraging my fellow Kingdom citizens. and showing that joy to the praise of God to those around whom God may plan to make into kingdom citizens. Beloved, the Christian's self-portrait is framed with the cross of Jesus. Surrounded by the cross of Jesus. Depends upon the work of Jesus Christ. Being poor in spirit means that when I see me in truth, All I see is poverty and nothingness. But when I see Jesus, by faith, I see the riches of the kingdom. I see fullness in the presence of God. It's all ours. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's ours today. Indeed, we know that we ourselves are a work in progress. And therefore, may the Holy Spirit continue to cleanse us that we might see less and less of ourselves and more and more of Jesus Christ that we might be a portrait to this world of God's truth. Praise God for the truth of the mirror of His Word, that truth alone that sets us free. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we pray that even as you have rescued us from your eternal wrath and the punishment of sin, that more and more you would rescue us from the arrogance of ourselves, from wanting to look to ourselves, not only in this life, but also for our favor with you. Father, give us a contentment and confidence in you alone that all we have and all we are is a precious gift. And that even as we travel through this life, that our confidence doesn't come from ourselves, but our confidence comes from the fullness of Jesus Christ. Help us to live for you day by day, moment by moment, that that may be clear to the world, that if it is your will, you would be pleased to use us in some small way as a tool in your kingdom to bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Father, we praise your most holy name. In Jesus' name, amen.